Permanent waving lotion



United States Patent 3,230,144 PERMANENT WAVING LOTION Carl C. Jensen and Floyd A. Mittleman, Chicago, Ill., assignors to The Gillette Company, Boston, Mass, a corporation of Delaware No Drawing. Filed Apr. 24, 1959, Ser. No. 808,567 4 Claims. ((31. 16787.1)

This invention relates to a novel composition for the cold permanent waving of hair and pertains more specifically to an improved cold permanent waving lotion which maintains its alkalinity substantially unchanged during reaction with the hair.

There have been widely used for the cold permanent waving of hair (that is, waving without the external application of heat, the maximum temperature obtained being of the order of 35 C.) waving lotions containing thioglycolic acid or other water-soluble mercaptan as the active hair-reducing ingredient and containing excess alkaline material. However, such lotions have suffered from the disadvantage that the alkalinity of the lotion decreases, while the lotion is in contact with the hair, below the desired value for optimum results. Attempts to overcome this difiiculty have frequently involved the use of an undesirably large quantity of alkaline material in the lotion when it is applied to the hair so that the loss of alkalinity during contact with the hair will result in an average alkalinity of approximately the value desired for optimum results. The consequence of such a procedure is that some of the hair to which such a lotion is applied is subjected to undesirably drastic conditions while other portions of the hair are subjected to undesirably mild treatment.

One object of the present invention is to provide a permanent waving lotion for the cold permanent waving of hair which maintains its initial alkalinity substantially unchanged during reaction with the hair.

Another object of the invention is to provide a permanent waving lotion for the cold permanent waving of hair which is free from excessive quantities of alkaline material at the outset of the waving procedure and which maintains the alkalinity of the lotion within closely controlled limits during reaction of the lotion with the hair.

Another object of the invention is to provide a permanent waving lotion for the cold permanent waving of hair which possesses unusually great curl-generating properties at moderate alkalinity levels.

Other and further objects will be apparent from the description which follows.

It has now been discovered that aqueous waving lotions containing any of the conventional water-soluble mercaptans capable of splitting the disulfide bonds in hair keratin along with any of the usual alkaline materials in an amount suficient to provide a pH from 8 to 9.5 may be compounded by incorporating therein a small quantity of urea along with the enzyme urease to maintain (and to raise, when necessary) the alkalinity of the lotion at a pH no less than about 9.0 to 9.2 during use of the lotion.

The hair-reducing mercaptan employed in the lotions of the present invention may be any of the water-soluble mercaptans which are well known in the art as suitable for reducing hair, among the most important of which commercially are thioglycolic acid, thiomalic acid, and alpha,alpha-dimercaptoadipic acid. The concentration of the Water-soluble mercaptan in the aqueous waving 10- tion of the present invention should be approximately 0.4 to 0.9 molar, the usual concentration employed in commercial hair waving lotions. This amounts to approximately 4% to 9% by Weight in the case of thioglycolic acid.

3,230,144 Patented Jan. 18, 1966 The alkaline material employed in the composition of the present invention must be a water-soluble material and must be present in an amount sufiicient not only to neutralize any acidic groups present in the water-soluble mercaptan employed, but also to provide an excess of free alkaline material in an amount sufficient to produce an initial pH of the lotion from 8 to 9.5, best results being obtained when there is sufiicient free alkaline material present to provide an initial pH of 8.5 to 9.2. Among the alkaline materials which may be employed for this purpose are the alkali metal hydroxides such as sodium or potassium hydroxide, the alkaline earth metal hydroxides such as calcium or magnesium hydroxide; ammonia or ammonium hydroxide; ammonium bicarbonate or ammonium carbonate; alkalonamines in which each alkanol group contains from 2 to 3 carbon atoms such as monoethanolamine, diethanolamine, triethanolamine, diisopropanolamine; 2-amino-2-rnethyl-l,3 propanediol; and the like.

The amount of excess free alkaline material over and above that required to neutralize any acidic groups present in the mercaptan employed will usually amount to 0.2 to 0.6 gram mole per liter of lotion, although lesser amounts are required when strong alkaline materials such as alkali metal hydroxides or alkaline earth metal hydroxides are employed.

The urea is present in an amount from 1% to 6% by weight of the entire lotion, and the urease is present in an amount from 0.1% to 0.6% by Weight of the lotion.

It has been found that the combination of urea and urease is effective to provide a source of ammonia and also ammonium carbonate by decomposition of the urea and that the decomposition reaction liberates sufiicient ammonia when the initial pH of the lotion is from 8 to 9.5 so that the lotion is maintained at a pH of approximately 9.0 to 9.2 throughout the course of the reaction of the lotion with the hair. The urease is found to be reversibly inactivated when the pH of the lotion is above approximately 9.2, so that the alkalinity of the lotion of the present invention is automatically self-controlled. If the initial pH of the lotion is below about 9.0 to 9.2, a sufficient quantity of the urea present is decomposed by the action of the urease to raise the pH to a level of 9.0 to 9.2, whereupon the liberation of further ammonia is inhibited until the pH of the lotion again drops below the desired value as normally happens during use of the lotion on the hair.

It will be understood that the lotions of the present invention may include any of the usual neutral additives such as perfumes, wetting agents, creaming agents, and the like.

The advantages of the waving lotion of the present invention may be obtained when the lotion is employed in a variety of different waving procedures. The lotion may be applied to dry or slightly moist (damp) hair in an amount sutficient to wet the hair thoroughly. By lightly combing the hair, the waving lotion can be distributed more evenly throughout the hair tresses. A tress of hair is then wound smoothly around a conventional curling rod, following which it is resaturated with a waving lotion. The tress, while wound around the curler, is allowed to process for forty to sixty minutes at room temperature, then rinsed with water. After towel blotting, excess waving lotion is neutralized and the disulfide linkages of the hair keratin restored by pouring through the hair repeatedly an aqueous solution of sodium perborate or any other suitable neutralizing agent.

If desired, the processing time may be reduced to twenty-five to thirty minutes, in which case the solution of neutralizing agent may be dispensed with. In this 3 procedure, the hair, following the rinsing step, may be covered by a towel or turban and then allowed to stand in the wound condition for approximately six hours. At the end of six hours, the hair will be substantially dry and the disulfide linkages will have been restored by aerial oxidation. The curling rods may then be removed and the hair may be rinsed and brushed as desired.

As a further modification of the procedure, the processing time may be reduced still further to a period of about fifteen to twenty minutes, following which it is rinsed and allowed to stand, preferably while covered with a towel or turban, for about thirty to thirty-five minutes while still wound on the curling rods. A solution of a conventional neutralizing agent, such as a 1% sodium perborate solution, is then poured through the hair, following which the hair is rinsed and set in any suitable style.

Example 1 A lotion was prepared containing in aqueous solution 0.7 M thioglycolic acid, 0.69 M ammonia, and 0.55 M diisopropanolamine, together with a conventional perfume, opacifying agent, etc. There was also introduced into the lotion sufiicient urea and urease to amount to 2.5% and 0.25% by weight, respectively, of the total lotion. The lotion before addition of the urea and urease had a pH of 9.2, while thereafter the pH was in the range 9.0-9.2.

The lotion was employed to wave hair using the third procedure described above and was found to produce a tight curl in the hair.

When the results of this procedure were compared with the results obtained by employing, in the same procedure, the same waving lotion with the omission of the urea and urease, it was found that the alkalinity of the lotion as indicated by pH measurements decreased appreciably during the 15 to 20 minute period for which the lotion was in contact with the hair and that the curl produced in the hair by the latter procedure was markedly less tight than the curl obtained employing the composition of the present invention, indicating the greater curl-generating power of the lotion containing the urea and urease.

Example 2 A lotion was prepared containing in aqueous solution 0.6 M thioglycolic acid, 0.6 M ammonia, 0.63 M diisopropanolamine, and 8% by Weight of the total lotion of an alkyl aryl polyether alcohol nonionic wetting agent (Triton X100), together with a conventional perfume, opacifying agent, etc.

To a portion of the foregoing lotion having a pH of 9.2 was added 4% by weight of urea and 0.36% by weight of urease. The pH remained at 9.2 upon standing. Both this portion containing the urea and urease and the same lotion without the addition of urea and urease were employed to wave hair by the procedure described in Example 1. It Was found that the lotion containing urea and urease maintained the desired alkalinity while on the hair (a pH value of 9.0-9.2) in contrast to the lotion without the urea and urease, in which the pH dropped to about 8.3, and produced a markedly tighter wave than was obtained with the lotion containing no urea.

Similar results are obtained when other mercaptan waving agents capable of reducing the disulfide bond in hair keratin are substituted for thioglycolic acid and when other alkaline materials are substituted for the ammonia and diisopropanolamine.

Although usually all of the ingredients are mixed together well in advance of use, it is possible, and in some cases it may be desirable, to introduce the urease ingredient into the lotion immediately before use of the lotion. In this case the urease may be packaged separately and supplied to the user in combination with a container of the urea-containing lotion with suitable instructions for mix ing the contents of the two containers. Indeed, if desired, the urease may be supplied in the form of a dry solid material carried by the end tissue or end paper used to wrap the end of the hair tress When it is wound upon a curler. In this case the end paper may be impregnated with a solution of urease and dried, the amount of urease in each paper being sutficient for the amount of urea-containing lotion which is to be used with each tress, so that the urease will be dissolved by and beached from end paper by the aqueous lotion.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described herein, it is not intended to limit the invention solely thereto, but to include all of the obvious variations and modifications within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An aqueous waving lotion for cold permanent waving of hair consisting essentially of (1) a water-soluble salt of thioglycolic acid with a member of the class consisting of alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, ammonia, alkanolamines in which each alkanol group contains from two to three carbon atoms, and 2-amino-2-methyl-1,3- propanediol, (2) an alkaline material, (3) urea, and (4) urease, said alkaline material being present in an amount suflicient to provide a pH from 8 to 9.5 in the absence of said urea and urease, the amount of urea being from 1 to 6 percent by weight of the lotion and the amount of urease being from 0.1 to 0.6 percent by weight of the lotion.

2. An aqueous waving lotion as defined in claim 1 in which the alkaline material is a member of the class consisting of ammonium hydroxide, alkanolamines in which each alkanol group contains from two to three carbon atoms, and 2-amino-2-methyl-1,3-propanediol.

3. An aqueous waving lotion for cold permanent waving of hair consisting essentially of 4 to 8 percent by weight of ammonium thioglycolate, 1 to 6 percent by weight of urea, 0.1 to 0.6 percent by weight of urease, and an alkaline material selected from the class consisting of ammonium hydroxide, alkanolamines in which each alkanol group contains from two to three carbon atoms, and 2-amino-2-rnethyl-1,3-propanediol, the amount of said alkaline material being suflicient to provide a pH from 8.5 to 9.2 in the absence of said urea and urease.

4. Composition for permanent wavmg of human hair, said composition comprising an aqueous liquid containing a thioglycolate, urea and urease.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,717,228 9/1955 Brown 16787.l 2,817,342 12/1957 Henkin 167-87.1 X 2,876,781 3/1959 Martin '67-87.1 X

OTHER REFERENCES Sumner et al., Chemistry and Methods of Enzymes, Academic Press Inc., publ., New York (1953), pp. 21-23.

LEWIS GOTTS, Primary Examiner.

MORRIS O. WOLK, IRVING MARCUS xaminers. 

4. COMPOSITION FOR PERMANENT WAVING OF HUMAN HAIR, SAID COMPOSITION COMPRISING AN AQUEOUS LIQUID CONTAINING A THIOGLYCOLATE, UREA AND UREASE. 